Tom and Summer

 

Geez, to look at that list below, you’d never know that I spent a whole sick day this week watching the final six episodes of “The Wire”. For what it’s worth on that front, y’all were right and the show is pretty damned incredible. If anything, I was actually surprised at how optimistic an ending the show was given…y’know, except where Dukie was concerned.

The Oscar watching continued this week, this time with nominees scratched off the list for Best Supporting Actor and Best Documentary. The latter actually brought upon an amusing moment.

Not five minutes into FINDING VIVIAN MAIER, I paused the film, turned to my wife and said (only half-joking) “You suck at life for letting me go so long before seeing this movie”. I hadn’t even finished my sentence when her eyes looked like they were going to bug out of her head. “Are you fucking kidding me” was her response. “After I saw this at TIFF, I told you to find a way to get it into your schedule. After that I must have suggested you get out and see it at least sixteen times!!”.

A good point there.

What I remembered during this fun little lovers’ quarrel is that sometimes we take sources of suggestion for granted. Be it a friend, a family member, someone we’re in a relationship with, or even a critic…sometimes we’ll hear them suggest films so often that we begin to tune them out. It’s not deliberate, not like we don’t believe that the film they’re saying is good actually is good, it’s just that they tell us about a lot of things and it all gets a bit muddled together.

It sorta sucks, the same way it sucks to suggest something to someone for a long time only to see them take the bait once a second source vets something…but when so many ideas are thrown around, it’s bound to happen that a few throws from the shortstop will sail past you to the backstop.

 

Here’s the week at hand…

Screenings
THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT – Not my favorite Scorsese doc by a longshot. There’s a moment late in its second act where it seems to have done enough stretching to kiss its own ass.

Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
BOUND FOR GLORY – Spoiler alert for an upcoming Dew Over: I’m one of the few people who still dig this movie.
THE JUDGE – This week in “Duvall gets nominated for being old”…
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO – Good start to this year’s blindspots.
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER – Word has it there’s controversy around this doc?
HORNS – I sorta wanted this to be better.
THE FRONT PAGE – Decent late-career Wilder, but I prefer it as HIS GIRL FRIDAY.

Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
TAXI DRIVER – Wait, it’s NOT cool to take a woman to a porno on a first date?
A SINGLE MAN – So damned handsome!
GONE GIRL – Even better the second time around.
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS – Speaking of “better the second time around”…
THE IMITATION GAME – This less so. I’m now in the mindset that it’s handsome and harmless, though my original review is more glowing.

 

Boxscore for The Year
23 First-Timers, 18 Re-Watched
5 Screenings
41 Movies in Total
How’s about you – seen anything good?

15 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched January 24 – January 30)”

  2. I see you’re working on catching me re: Billy Wilder. Too bad I watched another one this week, too. Two to go, Mr. McNeil. Two to go.

  3. Oh god, every time I see A Single Man mentioned anywhere, I just start sending out mind signals to Tom Ford telling him to make another movie. I’m still waiting for them to reach him. It’s seriously one of my favourite looking films of all time.

    Firsts: Wild– I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I need the soundtrack, damnit!
    Still Alice– Yeah no, I don’t like films like this. They scare me.
    Paddington– My first 2015 film! It was very cute.
    Rashomon– Awesome.
    Incendies– WOWSERS that was amazing!
    Finding Vivian Maier– Hi5! I really loved it.
    Citizenfour– Really cool and thrilling. It’s perfectly legit to find Snowden hot, right?
    Top Five– So good!
    Laggies– Adorbs. I never thought I would like modern day Keira more than period Keira but that’s what’s happening now.

    1. Damn, woman – that’s one stellar week of watching!

      Oddly enough, I find myself getting curiouser and curiouser where PADDINGTON is concerned. Perhaps I should take my niece to see it so I have a convenient excuse.

  4. The Wire is so good. The hype is definitely there for a reason. I’ve only seen seasons 1-3 so far.

    As for me, all first time:
    Fearless Hyena Part II
    The Man with the Iron Fists

  5. First-Timers: Blackhat, The Navigator, Miami Connection, Seven Chances, The Freshman (the Harold Lloyd film), and The Cameraman.

    Re-Watches: Full Metal Jacket.

  6. Well, I watched only 2 new movies this week and some new TV shows like Girls, Man Seeking Woman, Parks and Recreation and The Americans. If you haven’t watched the latter, I highly recommend it. It’s just so elegant and smart, very much like a John Le Carre adaptation.
    The 2 movies are:
    Wonder Boys – Comfortable film but very strange characters.
    Laggies – It was sweet until it turned into a cliche.

    I also made a retrospective of the month which you can find here:
    https://thesoundandthescreen.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/films-of-january-2015/

    1. Right?

      I think it’s also really telling in the way people’s attitudes towards porn have changed. I mean, it’s *still* not a good idea to open up one’s laptop on a first date and start clicking through videos with the chosen company of the evening…but I wonder if a modern version of Cybill Sheppard’s character would be as repulsed.

  8. Ahh, Horns. I really liked the book, but all the little details the film changed drove me nuts. I just couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

    His Girl Friday mention! I started my 2015 Blindspot off well too.

    1. Thanks for the reminder – I gotta dig through more of people’s Blindspot links and leave a few more comments. I swear this project is way easier in december when I have half as many entries.

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